We welcome people of all faiths on our pilgrimage holidays.

Many of the children who travel with us at Easter are from non-catholic backgrounds, and they always enjoy it just as much as those who are. Our focus is on giving the children that travel with us a fun week, full of friendship and new experiences.

Whilst many of our Easter volunteer helpers are practising Catholics or have been brought up within the Catholic church, this is not a requirement, and many non-catholic helpers return to Lourdes with us year after year. Many helpers describe their HCPT pilgrimage as a 'spiritual' experience. For some this is rooted in their religious beliefs, for others it is purely about the positive effects of caring sharing and seeing the world from others points of view.

Lourdes is an important pilgrimage location for Catholics from all over the world and attracts millions of people every year. The main 'attractions' - like the Grotto where Saint Bernadette experienced her visions of the Virgin Mary - centre around the Lourdes Story. During Easter week we will visit many of these places, and explain the Lourdes story, as well as experiencing the beautiful countryside of the Pyrenees. Mary, the mother of Jesus, appeared eighteen times to Bernadette Soubirous (St Bernadette) between 11 February and 16 July 1858. A number of messages were left with Bernadette including a call to pray for sinners and to build a chapel on the site,

Masses form an important part of the HCPT Easter experience, ranging from our Trust mass to which everyone will go, to outdoor masses organised by individual groups. These are designed with the children in mind, and are all about singing, stories and fun. Both children and helpers enjoy these immensely.

HCPT exists to help enable children and adults answer Mary's call to "Come here in procession", a request she made to all of us through Bernadette. It is very difficult for us to capture the Lourdes experience in words - so why not hear about it directly from people who have travelled with us.....